1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to techniques for processing machine instructions and more specifically to intermixing different types of machine instructions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer processors may support different types of machine instructions for manipulating data structures. For example, a computer processor may support a first type of machine instruction for efficiently manipulating data at the head of a queue. However, using the first type of machine instruction to manipulate data not at the head of the queue—or to access data at any position in the queue—may require obtaining serialization, which may be costly in some cases in terms of performance. Further, the computer processor may support a second type of machine instruction for manipulating or accessing data at any position in the queue. However, the second type of machine instruction may have a higher execution cost, relative to the first type of machine instruction. Further, intermixing the first type of machine instruction and the second type of machine instruction to concurrently update the queue may lead to unpredictable results in some cases.